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We're All Wearing Shoulder Pads

All of our dads watched "Project Runway" last week because of Tiki Barber. Our moms would call and say, "he's so proud of you." We don't have the heart to mention - really, we're just here to make the web work once the show has aired. Poor Dad, befuddled by the internets. Seriously, though, the Tiki fallout was awesome. Sports bloggers, our cousins, everyone -- "Dude! Tiki Barber went on 'Project Runway' and said he had a big butt!

So, if you're a new fan and your girlfriend is relieved, welcome aboard. Three things, really quickly. First, how cute is this photo? She looks like Goldie Hawn in "Butterflies are Free."

And second -- here are some observations we had on the opening credits: -Jack's line: "I'm In. They're Out" seems meaner than he actually is, no? -Who is Kevin talking about? He wouldn't be caught dead in whose clothes? -This happens every season, where someone in the credits says something really brave and strong and then they're auf'd and it becomes a little rough. Carmen says, "Bottom line, I'm the best." That's gonna sting for a few weeks. (Although, she's doing fine, she sent us an update last week...)

And third- can anyone help us with the "you sunk my battleship" aspect of stealing another designer's model? It really upsets the designers, it seems, and we worry about how this effects things back at the house. But more importantly, we REALLY want to know if the models ever hit each other backstage. Note to selves: ...ask...Andy Cohen...about...models...and...slapping.... Watching the designers choose the the models is a little like watching a game of dodgeball played against a team you've never met. We're all waiting for this season's big...you know, Nazri breakout. Now, that was a model that caught our attention from day one during Season Three.

We can't imagine what we'd do with shoulder pads in a competition. Really. Honestly. We asked the six designers in our "Burning Questions" blog this week, and they were, of course, a lot more creative than us. We just kept picturing the evil queen from "Snow White." There's not a whole lot you can do. Shoulder pads look like 1985. Poor Chris.

This episode kind of made us want the designers to play theatre games and do trust falls. It's not as though they've turned on each other, but the part where everyone is so happy and helpful - is clearly wearing off, with the notable exception of Elisa. We were gunning for her hippie warbling to start grating on people, but it actually just seems to be endearing her to them. Ricky even tries to speak to Elisa in a language she understands. And he uses the phrase "high on pot." Which is awesome, and sort of quaint. It's like something your mom says.

"Those guys got high on pot right after they ate all their cocaine brownies."

Then there's this fight between Victorya and Ricky. We think they really would have done a lot better if it'd turned into "Foxy Boxing."

Neither one of them seems actually all that invested in arguing. Or even being wrong or right. There's sort of a "Mom, Ricky's touching my side of the car" aspect to it. We know that we should totally applaud the civilized dialogue, but we kinda wanted slapping and meaner words. Or at least crying.

Are they passive aggressive? Or just really tired? It's kind of hard to tell.

Does Sweet P remind anyone else of Laura Bennet? They always show her sort of exhausted in the early morning and drinking coffee, but then also as a den mother, who has a big heart. Our intern noted that Sweet P seems constantly surprised by the experience -- and a little like she's always just heard thunder. The whole experience seems to be baffling to Sweet P, in a way that makes us kind of proud of her.

She's not totally playing along with the "We're all on TV" thing as well as the others. She wears it all on her face. It's kind of awesome. Especially when Heidi makes her choose between Steven and Chris. That part was a little unnerving, no? All in all, the fact that Chris was sent home was pretty shocking. He really did seem to be talented. He's kind of the Alison Kelly or the Malan Breton of this season. Very talented, totally fascinating, and yet -- gone before he had the chance... It makes us want to have him into the office for a latte and a scone. The invitation, in fact, stands.

Before we sign off, we wanted to answer a few of the questions posted to our blog this week. Such as this one that inspired a lot of navel-gazing ponderous pauses:

Catherine wrote an exceptionally good comment, that included this: Newstands and grocery checkout aisles are piled high with magazines that have articles about "stars" -- their private lives, their public lives, their fashions, etc. Why do we need more of the same on Project Runway?? In my opinion, we don't. We respectfully disagree. We also think they should have lives that don't exist on the website or in grocery stores, but, you know, even before we worked here, we were pretty interested in these people. Which is one of the nicest parts of watching the show. It's up to you how much you want to know about these folks. But we've learned that a lot of the people who watch "Project Runway" are...you know, they WATCH the show. Some even write into the website with questions or criticism (just saying, Catherine...). Just so everyone knows, we read each and every comment carefully. And we have to tell you, we get a lot of requests for a LOT more information.

Case in point -- Ellen wrote: Would you ever consider adding a small close-up photo of the fabrics and description used for each piece and adding it the runway photos on the blogs? First, thanks for the request Ellen. Second, we can work on that for the future, but...we didn't think to include that when they filmed the season. We had a similar request last year, when a whole lot of viewers asked us what the designers were wearing in each episode, and so our Editorial Director was pretty adamant that this season, we get this information. What do you guys think of the "What They Wore" gallery? We had some poor Production Assistant ask the designers what they were wearing on every day of filming, and we try to match them up as best we can. The problem today with this episode was that the PA was clearly sick the day they shot it, so we had to send everyone an email with a picture and say, "What are you wearing?"

The best response came from Steven, who wrote about this picture:

"Ah yes, the crazy face shot...this is the episode where I turn into Amy Winehouse, isn't it? The t-shirt is from a Chicago store called the T-shirt Deli, and the jacket is from Aeropostale. I don't think I'm wearing pants in this picture, but the underwear is probably cheap and from the Gap."

Here's a question we weren't expecting: Why did Jack take his shorts apart for a pattern? Does he not own a pounce wheel? Uhm...well. That's a good question. And one we will answer with a question. What's a pounce wheel? Okay, we looked it up. It's a sort of pen, with a spiky wheel on it, that you can cut, or at least, seemingly, poke holes in stuff with. Jack might very well own one. But...we think you're just trying to sound like you know what you're talking about. Are you? Do you have a pounce wheel? Can you let us know what it does?While we're on the subject of Jack, did you all see the big news? The staff are all still here. Apparantly, Christmas has come early in the world of gay pop culture news. Jack is dating Dale from "Top Chef." Jack sent us that picture.